|
ACT
WILL CUT POLLUTION AND REDUCE CLIMATE CHANGE
The quality of life for people living close to industrial
sites will be improved by new legislation. It will also help
meet national targets to tackle climate change. The Pollution
Prevention and Control Act 1999 paves the way for action to
cut a wide range of pollution from factories and other installations,
some of which have not been regulated before.
For the first time, too, many installations will have to improve
their energy efficiency, helping to cut emissions of carbon
dioxide, the main cause of climate change. Further improvements
include measures to cut noise pollution and to ensure operators
clean up after they leave a site.
Welcoming the new Act 28 July 1999, Ex-Environment Minister Michael Meacher said:
"The Act will be a powerful
tool for meeting the Government's commitments on the environment
and improving our quality of life." It will lay the foundation
for an updated pollution control regime, strengthening environmental
protection and bringing benefits for industry and individuals
alike. Comprehensive 'integrated' control will be extended
to five thousand extra installations. And the new focus on
energy efficiency could cut carbon emissions by three million
tonnes a year by 2010. "We will have a flexible form of regulation
where experience and good ideas can be shared, leading to
ever greater reductions in pollution as new technologies become
available."
The new regulations will meet the requirements of the European
Directive on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control.
The UK will share a common pollution control regime with its
EU partners, providing a level playing field for UK industry
to compete.
Part I of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 established
the Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) regime and Local Air
Pollution Control (LAPC) regime to regulate pollution from
industrial processes. Under IPC, the Environment Agency regulates
emissions to air, water and land from around 2,000 installations.
Under LAPC, local authorities regulate emissions to air only
from around 13,000 installations whose potential to pollute
land and water is less significant.
The Pollution Prevention and Control Act enables new regulations
to be made which will:
- implement the requirements
of the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC)
Directive;
- extend integrated control
to around 5,000 extra industrial installations;
- take a far wider range
of environmental impacts into account such as noise, use
of raw materials, accident prevention, site restoration
and energy efficiency (it is estimated that the new regulations
could save 3 million tonnes of carbon emissions per year
by 2010); and
- provide a consistent
framework for the regulation of LAPC installations not covered
by the Directive.
The new regime will
maintain the current systems' central concept of a flexible, case by case approach
to regulation which balances cost with environmental benefit.
The Confederation of British Industry have supported the Act for implementing
the Directive coherently with existing UK regimes and providing a clear regulatory
framework for operators.
In addition, the new regime will include deregulatory elements to benefit industry,
such as extending permit review periods and introducing standard application procedures
and standard permit conditions in appropriate cases.
The new regime will retain the principle that costs should only be imposed on
an operator where there are commensurate benefits. The Directive specifies that
where pollution control conditions are imposed on an operator, these must be 'developed
on a scale which allows implementation in the relevant industrial sector, under
economically and technically viable conditions, taking into consideration the
costs and advantages'.
Around 7,000 installations in the UK will be covered by integrated control under
the new regime including most of those regulated at present under IPC; some 1,500
of the 13,000 regulated at present under LAPC; over 1,000 of the installations
(mainly landfill sites) currently regulated by the Waste Management Licensing
system established under Part II of the 1990 Act; and significant numbers of installations
which are at present unregulated by either Part I or Part II of the 1990 Act.
This latter category mainly comprises large, intensive pig and poultry installations,
plus large installations for the manufacture of food and drink products. The new
regulations will also ensure that the 11,500 remaining LAPC installations remain
part of a coherent regulatory framework.
The UK must transpose the EC directive into domestic legislation by 31 October
1999 from which time new industrial installations will have to meet the directive's
requirements. The Directive's provisions must be applied to existing installations
by 2007.
The Act also provides for regulations to be made to cover other matters connected
with the prevention or control of pollution such as the collection of information
about emissions to be made available to the public in the Environment Agency's
Pollution Inventory.
The Government intends to use the Act as well to improve the environmental regulation
of offshore oil and gas installations including the implementation of the Oslo
and Paris Commission's (OSPAR) decision 96/3 on the use and discharge of chemicals
offshore
In addition, the Act corrects a problem with current legislation which would have
allowed certain operators whose waste disposal licences had time limits to walk
away from their responsibilities for landfill sites without ensuring that the
environment and human health were properly protected. |
